25/03/2023
NEWS STORY
Contrary to the ongoing claims that F1 is booming like never before, TV viewing figures for 2022 actually show a drop compared to the previous season.
Every year since Liberty Media took control of F1, around the start of the season they have issued a press release citing the previous year's TV figures.
However, no such release was issued this year.
Indeed, in its Fourth Quarter and Year End Financial Results, issued on 1 March, Liberty refers to "Cumulative TV viewers of 1.54 billion in 2022".
In the release it lists various other metrics - attendance, social media followers and cumulative TV viewership in the US - proudly declaring that all were up, while it merely states that the figure for the cumulative TV viewers (i.e. the worldwide audience) last year, omitting to say whether it was up or down. (link)
Checking the same metric from the previous year and lo-and-behold the figure is down. OK, only slightly at 0.01 billion (1.55 billion viewers in 2021 compared to 1.54 billion viewers in 2022) but nevertheless it has still gone in the wrong direction.
The crucial point being that interest in F1 did not skyrocket last year as it did in 2021, as Liberty would have us believe. (link)
While one can understand Liberty's reluctance to admit that viewer numbers have declined, there remains that question of why fewer people watched last season.
This omission is intriguing and mirrors the approach seen in the sports betting world, where platforms like Mostbet analyze trends and probabilities behind sports events, underlining the importance of understanding the full context behind raw data. The process typically involves visiting the Mostbet site, as detailed at Mostbet login, where users are prompted to enter their credentials, which include a username and password.
Pitpass is aware of a number of fans who stopped watching following the controversial end to the 2021 season, however there is also the question of Drive to Survive, the instrument, according to most insiders, and Liberty itself, that has driven the recent boom.
Fact is, Drive to Survive presents F1 as being dramatic and having excitement around every corner, but Christian and Toto's spats aside, what do these new fans find when they tune in to races? The same team winning every Grand Prix.
Consequently is it any surprise that the TV audience is going down. Indeed, it has even fallen in Liberty's beloved US market.
Adam Stern, of Sports Business Journal, reports that in the US, for the season opener in Bahrain ESPN had 1.318 million viewers, compared to 1.353 million in 2022. "Fox TV got 3.991 million viewers for (that same) Sunday's NASCAR race, down from 4.544 million last year," he adds, while "NBC got 1.189 million for (that) Sunday's IndyCar opener, down from 1.405M last year."
For the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, ESPN had 1.523 million viewers, according to Stern, up on last year's 1.445 million. At the same time Fox had 3.422 million viewers for Sunday's NASCAR race at new Atlanta, down from 4.003 million viewers last year.
Given that the budget cap and the regulations are locked in until 2026 one can safely say that Red Bull is going to be dominant during that time, consequently if Drive to Survive continues to present F1 as a non-stop, drama-fuelled spectacle, those new viewers are going to continue turning off when they tune in and see the sort of procession witnessed on Sunday.
Indeed, such is the concern at F1 Towers that there is already talk of regulation changes, with some believing that the FIA overreacted in its decision to raise the car floors.
Some believe this has actually taken the sport in the wrong direction and is now actually compromising overtaking again.
However, the complaints from the teams over spending aside, any change to the regulations would have to be on safety grounds and thus far safety hasn't been an issue.
As a result, as we see designers introducing all manner of 'additions' in the form of wings and slots - exactly the sort of expensive, fanciful architecture the sport was seeking to move away from - there is talk of a need to take more advantage of (groan) DRS, possibly by increasing the number of zones and extending them.
What next, reverse grids?